CIA Director Leon Panetta said today that Iran probably has enough low-enriched uranium for two nuclear weapons, but that it likely would take two years to build the bombs. Panetta added that there is some debate as to whether Iran will proceed with the bomb. He made the remarks at ABC’s “This Week.”
On UN and Western sanctions against Iran, Panetta said they might not reverse Iran’s nuclear program.
"Will it [sanction] deter them from their ambitions with regards to nuclear capability? Probably not," Panetta said.
On a potential Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, Panetta said he thinks Israel is giving the US room on the diplomatic and political fronts.
"This information has to be checked but such information is always worrying and all the more so because the international community does not recognize the Iranian nuclear program as transparent," Medvedev added [AFP, 27 June].
12 comments:
Reporters these days are so timid. They should have pointed out that the LEU stock is fully monitored by the IAEA, and it reports there has been no diversion.
More usual Zionist propaganda and AIPAC Iranophobia. Iranian peaceful nuclear program is completely transparent and under IAEA monitoring and inspections since two decades. This is same insidious propaganda, fabrications and lies they perpetuated against Iraq and the slow-strangling sanctions.
Iran should not be passive about their agenda. US/Zionist hostility to Iran has nothing to do with the nuclear program but their regional hegemony agenda where an independent energy rich Iran is an obstacle. Even if the whole Iranian nuclear program was dismantled tomorrow, the US and its rabid Zionist mutt would find another excuse to target Iran.
Been hearing the sam BS for 8 years now. Iran is still 2 years away.
I think its like the constant rerun of US soap series.... the logic is that maybe some people have just bought their first TV set and haven't seen the series before.
Same applies to the anti Iran prop....
CIA Chief: Sanctions will not deter Iran
CIA director Leon Panetta says he doubts that the Obama administration's push for imposing more sanctions against Iran would bring Tehran's nuclear program to a halt.
Panetta said he "thinks" Iran has enough low-enriched uranium to make atomic weapons, but questions Tehran's willingness to “build a bomb.”
"We think Iran has enough low-enriched uranium for two atomic bombs," Panetta said Sunday, without elaborating on the source of the conjecture.
In an interview with ABC's "This Week", he stressed that there was "some debate" as to whether Iran would be interested in making a nuclear weapon, but that the hypothetical step would take the country at least two years.
He went on to add that the recent UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions targeting Iran's financial and military sectors could help weaken the economy but would fail to prevent Tehran from seeking nuclear technology.
"Will it deter them (Iran) from their ambitions with regards to nuclear capability? Probably not," he said.
On June 9, the UNSC passed the Washington-drafted sanctions resolution against Iran over Western allegations that Tehran's nuclear program is harboring a secret military agenda.
While the US possesses and has used nuclear weapons in the past, Washington, in a politically-motivated move, is now imposing unilateral sanctions against Iran, which does not possess nuclear weapons nor does it seek to develop such weapons.
Iran has repeatedly rejected the allegations, reserving its right to a peaceful nuclear energy as a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA) and a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
I believe the carefully-worded comments by the CIA director and the reaction by the Russian president should be taken very seriously, not just as a propaganda ploy.
Poor gullible little Medvedev:
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100627/159592211.html
I'm afraid in 2 years time Putin will have to clean up a lot more candy wrappers than he bargained for.
WMDeception
In an interview published Tuesday, Livni, the leader of Israel’s centrist Kadima party, boasted that her parents, both members of the Zionist militant group Irgun in the 1940s, were the first couple to be married in the newly-formed state of Israel. ”Both of them were in the Irgun,” Livni said. “They were freedom fighters, and they met while boarding a British train. When the British Mandate was here, they robbed a train to get the money in order to buy weapons.” To which New York Times reporter Deborah Solomon responded: “It was a more romantic era.”. Jewish terrorism is romantic. It is also OK.
Let me assure CIA Director Leon Panetta that I, as anyone living near an ocean, have enough low-enriched uranium for twenty or even two hundred or more nuclear weapons.
I probably could make nuclear weapons in two years too. I only would need to enrich a bit more.
What is he going to do about that? Sanction me?
Mr Uskowi,
It is actually the opposite.
The more seriously Iran takes these kind of hidden threats, the more they (West) will make it.
It has to have a reverse reaction for them to stop the threats.
Like if Iran now starts to talk to the west, it means their sanctions have effect, so Iran has to stop talking and deal when sactions are lifted.
Never give in and never let the enemy know how you feel or think.
Dariush London
In all likelihood Iran already has a nuclear deterrent in place otherwise it would have been invaded and "regime changed" a long-time ago. Mustafa Najjar (then Defence Minister) in 2007 had confirmed the new long-range delivery platforms.
Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said the new "Ashura" missile had a range of 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) -- the farthest in Iran's arsenal, state media reported.
"The construction of the Ashura missile with a range of 2,000 kilometres is one of the accomplishments of the ministry of defence," Iranian news agencies quoted Najjar as saying.
"The missiles are being made in line with Iran's deterrent and defence doctrine," he added.
Iran has been developing an arsenal of liquid- and solid-fuel intermediate-range missiles.
Officials said both the operational liquid-fuel Shihab-3 and the new solid-fuel Ashoura were designed to contain nuclear warheads.
The simple fact is that US "intelligence" on Iran is mostly guess work or deliberate exaggerations and disinformation of MKO and other exiled groups with a vested agenda. Only time will tell. I don't believe the US or anyone else is in position to do much besides the routine psy-ops and destabiliation effforts since 1979.
Driush,
The point I am making is that these words should be taken seriously and not just be thought of as propaganda. That does not mean, however, that Iran needs to react to them.
Lehman Brothers had enough uranium for one nuke :) http://bit.ly/95uX5P
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